Screening Torture in The Message : The Body and Soul of a Genre Film

Abstract

The 2009 hit espionage thriller The Message (Fengsheng 风声) was widely regarded as a milestone in Chinese genre filmmaking in the new millennium. Differing from Socialist espionage films, contemporaneous espionage TV series as well as its literary original, the film is first and foremost characterized by its plenitude of torture scenes. A textual critique on these torture scenes reveals the generic elements from both Socialist revolutionary classics and American horror films. The genre mixing in The Message produces the sensorial pleasure of a body genre film while being safeguarded by its revolutionary packaging. As a specimen of the Chinese private film sector’s aggressive dual commercial and political campaign, The Message illustrates the strategies of Chinese genre filmmaking and manifests the splitting logic in the Chinese film industry.

Keywords

Chinese commercial cinema / espionage thriller / The Message / Chinese genre film / torture / body

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Brill